How long to image the Running Man Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30
From a Bortle 6 suburban sky, the ZWO Seestar S30 needs about 1 h 10 min (422 subs of 10 s) for a solid image of the Running Man Nebula. A quick look takes 18 min; a showpiece 4 h 41 min. Under a Bortle 3 rural sky the solid figure drops to 30 min. At Bortle 6 the limit is skyglow, so a darker site or a filter helps more than longer subs. In this scope's field it fills 28% of the frame’s short side.
| Sky | Quick lookTarget obvious, still noisy | SolidClean enough to share | ShowpieceSmooth faint detail, print-worthy |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bortle 1Excellent dark site | 6 min39 subs | 26 min156 subs | 1 h 43 min621 subs |
| Bortle 2Typical dark site | 7 min41 subs | 27 min164 subs | 1 h 49 min654 subs |
| Bortle 3Rural | 7 min45 subs | 30 min179 subs | 1 h 59 min716 subs |
| Bortle 4Rural / suburban transition | 9 min55 subs | 36 min217 subs | 2 h 24 min866 subs |
| Bortle 5Suburban | 11 min69 subs | 46 min276 subs | 3 h 04 min1,103 subs |
| Bortle 6Bright suburban | 18 min106 subs | 1 h 10 min422 subs | 4 h 41 min1,686 subs |
| Bortle 7Suburban / urban transition | 29 min175 subs | 1 h 56 min699 subs | 7 h 46 min2,796 subs |
| Bortle 8City | 47 min283 subs | 3 h 08 min1,130 subs | 13 h4,520 subs |
| Bortle 9Inner city | 1 h 25 min513 subs | 5 h 42 min2,050 subs | 23 h8,197 subs |
Power and kit for this session
Allowing for slewing, focusing and rejected subs, that is about 1 h 31 min of run time. The Seestar S30’s battery (rated about 6 h) should cover it; a power bank still keeps the phone running the app alive. (Bortle 6, solid image; we allow 30% over the integration time, and 30% off the battery for a December night.)
- USB-C power bank 10000mAh 5V 3A6,000 mAh inside; a 10,000 mAh 5 V 3 A bank roughly doubles a session.
- Seestar S30 dew shieldHeater is built in; a cheap shield reduces dew and stray light.
- red LED head torchRed light keeps your night vision; white light costs you twenty minutes of dark adaptation every time.
- hand warmers long lastingAir-activated packs give hours of heat for the person; winter nights are long and you spend most of them standing still.
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Everything that fits the Seestar S30 →
How it frames
The Running Man Nebula is 20′ × 10′ across. The Seestar S30 frames 2.13° × 1.20° at 3.99″ per pixel, so it fills 28% of the frame’s short side.
Longer subs
10, 20 and 30 s in Alt-Az; 60 s only in EQ mode, which needs the TH10 head. Time for a solid image by sub length:
| Sub length | Bortle 3 | Bortle 5 | Bortle 7 |
|---|---|---|---|
| 10 s | 30 min179 subs | 46 min276 subs | 1 h 56 min699 subs |
| 20 s | 24 min74 subs | 41 min122 subs | 1 h 51 min334 subs |
| 30 s | 23 min46 subs | 39 min78 subs | 1 h 49 min219 subs |
| 60 s | 30 min30 subs | 37 min37 subs | 1 h 47 min108 subs |
Leave the dual-band filter out for the Running Man Nebula. It is a reflection nebula, and it shines right across the spectrum. A dual-band filter keeps two emission lines and throws the rest away, so most of the light you came for is being stopped along with the sky. From a Bortle 6 sky it would be roughly 13 times slower.
About the Running Man Nebula
The blue reflection nebula just north of M42 with a dark figure running through it. Broadband only; it comes free in a long Orion stack.
NGC 1977, Sh2-279 · Reflection nebula in Orion · magnitude 7.0 · 20′ × 10′ · best in Nov, Dec, Jan. Reachable from mid-northern latitudes (UK, northern US, central Europe) and from the south.
Reflection nebulae are starlight scattered by dust, so they are broadband and blue. A dual-band filter removes almost all of it; do not use one. These are among the faintest structures a smart scope can attempt and the figures run long. A dark sky matters more here than for any other type, and the Moon must be down.
About the ZWO Seestar S30
Wider and lighter than the S50 with the same 2.9 µm pixels, so its per-pixel speed on extended targets is close despite the smaller aperture. Ideal for big nebulae.
10, 20 and 30 s in Alt-Az; 60 s only in EQ mode, which needs the TH10 head. Built-in UV/IR-cut, dual-band (OIII 30 nm / Hα 20 nm) and dark filters.
Longer subs matter most under dark skies, where read noise rather than skyglow sets the floor. From a city the difference between 10 s and 60 s subs is small; from a rural site it can halve the total time, especially with a dual-band filter in place.
Stack across nights. Every smart scope app can continue a stack or you can combine the saved frames on a computer; the figures here are totals, not single-session limits.
Have an image of the Running Man Nebula from a Seestar S30? Email it with your total time and sky to [email protected] and it goes here, credited.
Same target, other telescopes
- Running Man Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50: 1 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S50 Pro: 1 h 13 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the ZWO Seestar S30 Pro: 1 h 18 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF 3: 1 h 37 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF mini: 1 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the DwarfLab Draco: 55 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the DwarfLab DWARF II: 3 h 48 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera II: 1 h 07 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro: 2 h 30 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera 3: 1 h 04 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Vaonis Vespera Pro 2: 2 h 23 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Unistellar eQuinox 2: 1 h from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Unistellar Odyssey: 4 h 39 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Celestron Origin: 18 min from Bortle 6
- Running Man Nebula with the Celestron Origin Mark II: 24 min from Bortle 6
All telescopes for the Running Man Nebula · All targets for the Seestar S30